Bipartisan US shutdown deal will sharpen divisions among Democrats

With a bipartisan vote in the Senate approving federal government funding now on the books, it appears the longest shutdown in U.S. history is moving closer to resolution.

Furloughed federal employees will return to work. They, as well as those deemed too “essential” to be sent home, will begin to receive wages again, including back pay.

Air travel to the USA will return to somewhat tolerable normality. Food assistance to low-income Americans will resume. National parks will reopen.

The trials, large and small, that the shutdown has caused for many Americans will end.

But the political fallout from this record-breaking standoff will linger even as the government returns to work.

Here are three main conclusions that can be drawn now that the ramp is available.

In the end, the Democrats blinked. Or at least enough centrists, soon-to-be retirees and at-risk politicians in the Senate to give Republicans the support they need to reopen the government.

For those who voted with the Republicans, the pain shutdown became too harsh. However, for other party members, the cost of retreat proved unbearable.

“I cannot support a deal that still leaves millions of Americans wondering how they are going to pay for their health care and whether they will be able to afford to get sick,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said in a statement.

The way this shutdown plays out will undoubtedly reopen old wounds between activists and the party's left base and its institutionalist, centrist establishment. Divisions within the party, which celebrated electoral victories in Virginia and New Jersey last week, are likely to worsen.

Democrats were outraged by Republican-backed cuts to government programs and cuts to the federal workforce. They accused Donald Trump of pushing and violating the boundaries of presidential power. They warned that the nation was drifting toward authoritarianism.

For many on the left, the shutdown was a chance for Democrats to draw a line in the sand. And now that it looks like the government will reopen without any fundamental changes or new restrictions for Trump, many on the left will see it as a missed opportunity. And they will be angry.

During his 40-day quarantine, Trump made two international trips. to the Middle East and East Asia. He played golf. He visited his personal estates on numerous occasions, including once to host a lavish Great Gatsby-themed fundraising party at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

What he didn't do was push his party to compromise with the Democrats. And in the end, this tough line paid off.

The White House has agreed to reverse staff cuts it ordered during the shutdown.

Senate Republicans have vowed to hold a vote on government subsidies for health insurance. But the vote is not a guarantee, and there is little that Trump and his team gave up on Day 40 that they wouldn't have agreed to on Day One. Senate Democrats, who ultimately broke with their party to reopen the government, said they had little hope of success with Republicans.

“It didn't work,” Angus King, an independent who sides with the Democrats, said of the party's shutdown strategy. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, said the agreement reached Sunday night was “the only deal on the table.”

“Waiting any longer will only prolong the pain that Americans are experiencing due to quarantine,” she added. It is impossible to say what was going on in the minds of Trump and the leadership of the Republican Party. At times, Trump even seemed hesitant to discuss the prospect of replacing health insurance subsidies with direct payments to Americans or eliminating the filibuster that gave Democrats control of the Senate.

But the Republicans ultimately rallied and did a good job of convincing enough Democrats that they weren't going to give up.

This disable recording may be close to ending, but the political dynamics that led to the standoff still persist.

The compromise legislation funds most government operations only until the end of January, just enough to get the country through the holiday season and the weeks beyond. After that, Congress can return to where it was when government funding ran out in late September.

Democrats may have backed down this time, but they haven't faced any real political consequences for blocking the Republican funding bill for more than a month. In fact, Trump's approval ratings have dropped during the shutdown, and Democrats made impressive showings in the state's midterm elections last week.

With some on the left howling that their party didn't get enough from this shutdown—and only a handful of rank-and-file party members in Congress support the compromise—there may be plenty of motivation for further shutdown brinksmanship as midterm elections loom next year. And with food aid for the poor now secured through October, one particularly sensitive issue for Democrats has been taken off the agenda.

It has been nearly five years since the last government shutdown during Trump's first term. Most likely, the next one will be much earlier.